Microsoft has commissioned two of the biggest names in consumer electronics to manufacture a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360, market sources have claimed.
A joint venture between Samsung and Toshiba has been tasked with making the add-on drives for the console, an Xbit Labs report maintains. Although the drive’s technical …

COMMENTS

MS are in danger of missing the boat....again.

Would somebody overseeing the 360 dev, make their bloody mind up. When HD-DVD took a turn for the worse, the implied intention was to not bother with high capacity media, rather stick everything on the XBL network and provide to users that way.

This should've been a contingency plan already in place for if hd-dvd went belly up (as it did).

I think MS are gonna drive further wedges between their consumers. MS have made a success of the XBL service, it would be stupid not to capitalise on that. In a lot of peoples opinions online delivery will overtake the need for large media.

However, there is the other aspect of game content. Is there pressure from game devs to MS to garner the use of BR so as to provide games with content that will benefit more from a BR disc than the standard 360 version?

HD-DVD

I've got a HD-DVD drive for my Xbox and love it. The discs on eBay are at least half the price of the Blu-ray version which makes it cheaper than renting the film (especially from the ludicrously pricey Xbox renta-flick service). I'll go BluRay only when I sell the Xbox.

Huh?!

Toshiba - who won't go blu and think that SD cards are the interim method of delivering HD content (until faster broadband is common place)

Microsoft - who "have no plans" to go Blu and are currently pushing their HD movie download service as well as being the main rival of Sony as far as consoles are concerned.

The only party involved that is a bluray backer is Samsung.

On top of that - as most people that have used a 360 know - the constant droan of the cheapo case fan is very off putting for watching movies, coupled with decent stand alone blueray offerings from panasonic coming in under £180 now, the add on would have to be dirt cheap to leave the shelves.

I'd like to know the source of this rumour - "that guy down the pub" doesnt count either.

How many time are we going to hear........

what's the point

it's not like anyone is going to release games on blu-ray. The only benefit could be of it's an incredibly cheap way of getting a player. But that's a bit unlikely as i don;t expect it to be that much cheaper than a proper player, that might be quiet.

'Blu Ray bad, Downloadable content good

For god's sake, will people please shut up about "blu Ray being dead because we are all going to download everything" as a reason never to buy Blu Ray. Just which century do people think this is going to happen? It will happen in some cities in some parts of some countries (outside Korea & Japan) and in the next 5-100 years. So why does this mean that Blu Ray is dead?

Buy or don't buy, it's up to you but don't continue spouting what is patently not possible today, tomorrow or even next week as a reason for not getting Blu Ray. And that is without getting into the whole, I don't trust downloads/download caps etc

Rant over, time for tea.

Alien - because these suckers will be here before download speeds across the UK are fast enough and the pipes are wide enough for everyone to 'download on demand movies' easily, quickly and simply.

Toshiba / Samsung venture - TSST

Toshiba / Samsung have a joint venture which makes optical components called TSST. I expect this is the venture that the article is referring to and it probably made drives that went into some Samsung players.

I don't see why Toshiba shouldn't be involved in Blu Ray. After all, they make the Cell processor chips that goes into the PS3 - the console which was a substantial reason that Blu Ray won and HD DVD didn't. It's not like they're hurting anybody except themselves by staying out of an expanding market.

As for Microsoft - it is a smart move to support Blu Ray. It removes one of the last major discrepancies between their console and Sony's. There are other ones of course but none so visible. If they were extra smart they would sell the add-on but also integrate a Blu Ray drive into their "elite" model which they would sell at the same price as a PS3. Bonus points if it were an HD DVD hybrid but whether they'd bother remains to be seen.

Here we go again...

Fanboy's at the ready!!

Firstly, @ Liam... if you ignore hard disk size ( as you chose to in your comparison...) then the 360 actually has FEWER models than the ps3... apart from HD size, there is NO functional difference in models. PS3 DS controller...?

Games will NOT be coming out on BR.. fact. It's not needed, and for the relatively tiny user base it will have, not financially viable.

A BR addon is being made simply for those that WANT IT... if it sells for under say, 80 quid, then it is a very cheap way of adding this functionality to the 360...

MS playing catch up? Yeah... right... on line services? 'trophies'...?

Personally I'm not that bothered, I'd more likely get a proper player when one came available, but it bugs the crap out of me when people stick the boot in for no reason that blind support for one company or another... be it Sony, MS, nintendo... Apple... all the bloody same.

If you are going to criticise and slag one off, at least get your facts right...

@Colin Mountford

"Hard media is no longer the future, downloadable content is the way to go, so why are we bothering with Blu-ray."

The net is struggling enough to provide streaming video on demand. I'd rather have my game on my hard drive, thanks, than to get so far in a game for it to suddenly freeze with "BUFFERING" in the middle of the screen.

Download the way to go??

Not until the speed, price and bandwith improve. My standard cable internet here (Montreal, QC, Canada) costs me about 60$ a month and limits me to 20 gigs of download per month. So what, if I download one game then I'm over my limit and I have to pay overage fees to play online multiplayer or read my emails?!? Not only that but it'll take me a few days to download as well. The hard media going the way of the dodo is bulsh*t until we all have unlimited internet access and decent bandwith.

Speaking of media, how come way back when, games used to come with nice manuals that often fit in the game context, ex: Quake 2's manual looked like a leatherbound diary, it even had hand scrawled notes in the margins. Today it's flimsy black and white glossy paper.

@<Deep breath>

So who pays for this bandwidth? If you pay <insertISPname> for a guaranteed QoS to download your 2-7GB for a game, or 18-25GB for a Blu-Ray Movie, then fair enough, but otherwise why should they offer you bandwidth 10-100 times the typical user for free?

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates fantasies aside, what sort of business model relies on an unproven supply chain that has no grade of service and may be shut off at any time? What happens to your payment if your ISP hard-caps you or drops you down to 100kbps halfway through the game/movie download - do you buy a license that allows you to start the download again (at the start of the next 30-day period) or is your money poured down the drain?

I can walk into a store on the way home, pick up Harry potter for the kids and the Dark Knight for us, for $19.99 a time and be watching them on 2 screens 10 minutes later. Or I can take a chance of downloading them and they'll arrive sometime?? And this is from the national carrier in Canada's largest city not some rural enclave on a small-town ISP.

Its needed,

Then ms will have the best media hub around, arguably the best games, access to netflix (the best SD download service) its own semi hd film service and blu ray for the best HD possible for the big films.

I dont believe the rumours that the next xbox wont have any kind of media drive and be a net delivery device only. Not enough people have access to fast internet so they're limiting there choices there. Although the argument they use using GTA is mildly convincing, download 1st area and start playing whilst the other 2 islands download. I still think it have some form of large optical drive even if its a rebadged hddvd drive unable to play films

Even better,

@Nicholas Shaw

Mr Shaw is spot on.

In the UK, until BT's 21CN is rolled out in conjunction with FTTK or FTTH then the idea of downloading 1080p HD content without waiting ages is a pipe dream.

Optical media is "permanent" (i.e. hard disk fails, don't lose movies), can be shared (DRM on downloaded media will make this hard) and is available to everyone now. The players will become cheap (£100 by XMAS for no-name brands I'd hope).

As for Microsoft - they are US based and may believe cable networks over there will deliver downloaded HD content reasnobly quickly in the next couple of years. Perhaps someone realised the world is bigger than the US and they've had 2nd thoughts. As someone else pointed out, they are big and ugly enough to have had some contingency plan in place for the failure of HD-DVD... or are they still supremely arrogant ?

For the record I don't own an XBOX or a Playstation 3 - both a too big, ugly and power hungry; I'm waiting for a device that doesn't look like a prototype.

Another rumour...

you know, wasn't it just a few months back that there was a rumour that MS has signed Liteon to make a few million blu-ray drives for use in the 360. Now its Toshiba and Samsung? May happen, may not.

Personally though, blu-ray is a waste of time. A decent upscaling dvd player gives you 1080p, and at a quality thats very similar but you haven't then had to fork out a shed load of cash on more Sony DRM loaded tat, or spend a fortune rebuying all you classic movies you have on DVD.

Technology wise, DVD will be my last physical media I'll buy. Can't see a point these days now when I would prefer downloads. But the perceived feature gap as mentioned, could be such that it might be worth MS looking for fill the space.

@Allan Rutland

it maybe worth visiting your optician (eye doctor) if you think that upscaled dvd matches high bit rate hi definition. I know home media is confusing so it could be that you've just bought a upscaling player but have a standard definition tv so you wont see the benefits! Maybe look in your local paper for an home entertainment engineer, they should be able to help you out, if the eye doctor says you're ok

I do understand some people have a problem with blu ray's association with sony so check out vudu's hdx which is delivering 'blu ray quality' via a download infrastructure.

Because when it comes down to it all blu ray is is a method of delivering an (upto) 50gb file to your front room and if download services try to match the resolution and bit rate then everybody is a winner.

Its always the problem with new technologies that people dont understand how they work. I remember having to explain to people that a cd could hold more information than a floppy disc, which they thought was more hi tech! So having games on 1 cd was better than having them on 7 floppy discs. Same problem here except its now 50gb vs 8gb, more information makes for a more richer viewing experience.

Oh and a blu ray player can play dvds so even if the law of your land makes hard to own more than one disc spinner you can put the dvd into your blu ray player and enjoy it upscaled just in case you can't afford to replace it or dont want to

Hopefully that helps and when you get a hi definition tv check out a real high bit rate hi definition source like the vudu hdx and you'll see what you're missing

Why not add a separate Blu-Ray drive

I like both the Xbox 360 (that my kids have) and the PS3 that I own.

I purchased the PS3 because it had a Blu-Ray player. It is a decent upscaler for DVDs as well.

If a Blu-Ray drive is added internally or externally to the Xbox360 this will only be a benefit. If you dont want to watch blu-ray movies - then dont bother to buy it. Putting it inside the console will probably be cheaper.

I have got rid of my DVD player, video recorder etc- because I dont want lots of boxes.

If the Xbox 360 had had a Blu-Ray drive - I would probably have purchased it rather than the PS3. The PS3 was not only a great games machine (as is the Xbox360) but a brilliant Blu-Ray player and in may ways better than standalone players. (You can upgrade the firmware for it unlike standard players...).

You can still concentrate on keeping its price down. The Xbox Arcade is priced very competitively against the Nintendo Wii. Any serious gamer will want a hard drive with it - but the option only increases the number of Xbox360 users. The more consoles sold - the more games ...

Its even good news for PS3 owners like myself, because hopefully more Blu-Ray drives will ultimately lead to lower Blu-Ray prices (or at least I will be able to share my movies with a wider range of friends).

As for downloading movies. Sure thats great - but requires the kind of bandwidth that many of us don't have right now and may not get for some time.

@Allan Rutland

"a decent upscaling dvd player gives you 1080p, and at a quality thats very similar "

Sorry, that, just plain untrue, and sounds like the usual FUD that Microsoft and the like spread, when they don't have a solution. Once Microsoft have a 360 BD drive, all of a sudden, it will be as we have all known for ages, Blu-ray makes a MASSIVE difference...

You might want to check these screenshot comparisions of 1080p upscaled, to 1080p native.

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/1212127-post280.html

I wouldn't want to be watching on a upscaled, when I have seen the difference a £279 PS3 can make to picture quality.

Internet speeds / HD in US

@ Sascha

I live in the north eastern US and the average connection speed by me is 10/1, with up to 50/15 available for under 80 USD a month. I know a lot of the country isn't like this, but I pay $39.99 for 15/1.5 at home. All these services have no cap on top of the decent speeds we have available. I'm sure out in the mid-west it's a completely different story.

When it comes to HD availability, again some areas are ahead of others. The cable provider here has a huge HD channel selection compared to most other places it seems. Cable in general is costly, but the HD DVR box with remote is an extra $5-$8 depending on your plan per box, and my newest TV didn't even need the box to get the HD channels. I can watch TV with almost never having to go to a non-HD channel, as all our local stations and most of the big networks have both choices available. We even have on demand HD channels, some for renting movies and pay-per-view specials and others for the various network channels.

When it comes down to the whole Xbox360 and PS3 debate, I normally buy based on the games I want to play. Microsoft won the fight this round for me, as so many games are cross platform that the cost and much earlier availability was actually a factor. When I want a Blu-Ray player, I'll buy one. I buy game systems to play games.

The Xbox360 and accessories are the only MS products in my house, too. Streaming to it from Linux was trivial, which gave me more options for listening to music and watching video (and yes, I know the PS3 does this, but my 360 was doing it for me before I could even buy a PS3.)

2 quick points

Did all the HDDVD fanboys become download-fantasists following ignominious rout after the great format wars of 06-07?

Price me up a 300Gb 360 perfect for downloading and storing loads of movies on? Describe a good 'media hub' that doesn't offer free-to-air programming with dvr functionality? In a 5 year console lifespan is XBL really £175 better than PSN? Sorry I couldn't hear any of those answers over the roar of the games machine in your living room - oh wait, it just stopped.

Another pointless unwanted addon

I have a XBOX 360 and i wouldnt be intrested in a addon Blu Ray drive and i doubt most other customers would be either. Wouldnt it be better to just buy a cheap standalone Blu Ray player or a £70 bolt in drive for the PC. There is nothing worse then a machine that tries to do everything and fails to do anyone of those tasks well. Leave the Blu Ray addition till the next generation of XBOX is developed.

What?

What is The Register on about?

The 360 is winning against the PS3 even without the price cuts, with the price cuts doubling it's sales over the PS3 it's even more clear cut now.

Furthmore, whilst Bluray is a feature the PS3 has over the 360, it's only one feature, so to suggest one feature somehow is more features than the countless features the 360 has over the PS3 doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're a complete failure at basic math and by basic I mean like nursery level.

Besides, most people buy a games console to, you know, play games. Seeing as the 360 blitzes the PS3 in that respect it's no wonder it's ahead of the PS3 in hardware sales by a decent amount and software sales by a massive amount.

Are the poor old Register "journalists" still really so upset that they backed the wrong horse with the PS3 that even now when sales figures are settled, the final placings are already decided for this console round they still can't drop their subtle jabs at the 360?

Price is everything

This could be a very good thing, just as long as they get the price right. Having replaced a 360 HD-DVD drive with a standalone player already, because the cost came down to a level where it was affordable to do so, I'm used the way running films over Microsoft's console isn't ideal. But standalone Blu-ray players are coming down all the time. If they're going to do this, they need to do it both quickly and cheaply, before I just get a proper player instead. Or Sony drop the price of a PS3, for that matter.

Value is everything

Would you buy the cheapest baked beans or the best value baked beans? Me I buy the best value beans.

Would you buy the cheapest car or the best value car? Me I buy the car. Clearly the roads are not full of ladas and trevants, so I think most people think the same...

Same applies for consoles. The PS3 is by far and away the best value console right now. Sure there will be cheapskates who want it cheaper, but that would sacrifice quality, and make it no better than the crappy 360, and these people will always want something cheaper, most of the people crying about PS3 cost, are those that cried to Sony last time, about launch PS3's being to expensive, and the same ones crying about losing hardware PS3 compatability due to cost reductions. Go Figure....

If you want quality, you have to pay for it. PS3 offers insane amounts of value, at a very reasonable price.

Oh Dear

"Would you buy the cheapest baked beans or the best value baked beans? Me I buy the best value beans."

No, i buy the cheaper beans because they don't taste any different and they're cheaper. Therefore i save more money for other things i want to buy and don't shoot myself in the foot. I can also afford to buy two tins instead of one.

"Would you buy the cheapest car or the best value car? Me I buy the car. Clearly the roads are not full of ladas and trevants, so I think most people think the same..."

You buy the car? Ladas and trevants? This is the most ridiculous argument ever. Clearly you have no understanding of a "Cheap" car?

"Same applies for consoles."

STOP. You're argument fell apart earlier, you bring up cheap beans and cars and expect to follow that through with a console analagy? Oh dear.

"The PS3 is by far and away the best value console right now."

In your opinion. It depends on what you as the consumer want, which is why we have choice and I for one am glad that there is such thing. You could argue that the 360 is the best value because of its choice of packages, its back catalogue and the fact that they're not forcing features upon you. You could argue that the Wii is the best console as you may not have a HDTV and you want a new gaming experience.

The problem in these forums is that people are inflicting THEIR experiences and their needs. This is why you're in here and not out there marketing these products because you do not understand the general public. You only understand yourselves.

"Sure there will be cheapskates who want it cheaper, but that would sacrifice quality, and make it no better than the crappy 360, and these people will always want something cheaper, most of the people crying about PS3 cost, are those that cried to Sony last time, about launch PS3's being to expensive, and the same ones crying about losing hardware PS3 compatability due to cost reductions. Go Figure...."

And there it is, the argument instead falls into the usual MARK type insults that he frantically types trying to conjure together something to wind up his 360 or nintendo counterparts. Any console that is the highest cost on the market to the consumer will be the console that gets the complaints, FACT. It always happens to be the most unpopular one. You will not be happy until everyone is singing the PS3 praise, and even then you'll still not be happy.

Its all very very sad. Try playing on your console. Or do you not actually do that?

"If you want quality, you have to pay for it. PS3 offers insane amounts of value, at a very reasonable price."

Try explaining some day what this insane amount of value is, and do it like a man, and do it logically without comparing it to another console. Try to help us understand what it is that you love so much about it. Then someone may actually listen to you.